1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a base support for an image recording medium that has high flatness and excellent stiffness concurrently and a method for manufacturing the same and an image recording medium capable of creating high glossiness and superb smoothness of a print
2. Description of Related Art
There are a variety of paper conventionally well known in the art as base supports for image recording mediums such as electrophotographic paper, heat sensitive printing paper, ink-jet printing paper, sublimation transfer printing paper, silver salt photographic paper, heat transfer printing paper and the like. Such the base support paper include, for example, base paper, synthetic paper, synthetic resin sheets, coated paper, laminated paper and so forth. In order to provide high quality prints with high glossiness and superb smoothness, these image recording mediums, and hence base supports of the image recording mediums consequentially, are demanded to have high surface flatness.
On the other hand, in order to record high quality images, there have been proposed image recording mediums and base supports for the image recording mediums in recognizing the importance of internal bond strength of paper. One of base supports for these image recording medium disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-55545 is a base support for heat sensitive recording paper that has an internal bond strength between approximately 0.5 kgf·cm (49 mJ) and 1.5 kg·cm (147 mJ). Heat sensitive recording paper provides excellent dot reproductivity and is consequentially possessed of enhanced recording density. Another example is a base support for photographic paper disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-149542 that comprises base paper having an internal bond strength between approximately 1.0 kgf·cm (98 mJ) and approximately 2.0 kgf·cm (196 mJ). Photographic paper having this base support can provide prints with good preservation of strength and good showings. A further example is a base support for ink-jet recording paper disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-11004 that has an internal bond strength between approximately 0.9 kgf·cm (88 mJ) and 2.2 kgf·cm (215 mJ). Ink-jet recording paper having this base support creates high image quality and is flee from the problem of paper peeling.
However, all and singular of these citations does not in any way teach changing internal bond strength of the base support according to perpendicular depth nor suggest that a change in internal bond strength of the base paper plays a role in paper flatness and stiffness.
In the present circumstances, there is a strong demand for development of a base support that strikes a balance between high flatness and superb stiffness and image recording paper made of the base support that provides creates quality images with high glossiness and superb smoothness.